James Madison was the fourth president of the USA from 1809 to 1817. He was born in 1751 at Port Conway in King George County, Virginia and died in 1836. Educated at Princeton, he graduated in 1772, and was early distinguished for sound judgment, discretion, acquirements, industry and patriotism.
In 1774 he was a member of the Committee of Public Safety of Orange County, and in 1776 became a member of the Virginia Convention. From 1780 to 1784 he was a member of the Continental Congress, and, in spite of his youth and modesty, had a leading share in its deliberations, and especially its committee work, for which his sensible and methodical mind was peculiarly apt.
In the Virginia Assembly from 1784 to 1787 he did great service in securing religious liberty and in promoting the movement toward a better union of the States. Probably no one else contributed more to this end in all America. He advocated acceptance of the impost law by the states, suggesting the famous compromise known as the 'three-fifths rule' by which (in taxation) five slaves were rated as three freemen.
He was a member of the Alexandria-Mount-Vernon Conference of 1785, of the Annapolis Convention of 1786, and of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, in which he had the most influential part, through his own talents for constructive statesmanship and also through his persuasive and conciliatory spirit. His was the 'Virginia Plan' of federation in 1787.
In 1788 he wrote a portion of the Federalist and did more than any one else to secure the ratification of the Constitution by Virginia. From 1789 to 1797 he was a leading member of Congress, inclining more and more to the doctrines and party of Jefferson. He wrote the Virginia resolutions of 1798.
From 1801 to 1809 he was Secretary of State in Jefferson's Cabinet, and from 1809 to 1817 he was President of the United States, being elected over C C Pinckney in 1808, and over DeWitt Clinton in 1812. The chief event in his administration was the War of 1812, which he managed feebly. From 1817 to his deathMadison lived in retirement at Montpelier, Virginia. Research James Madison
Gabelle was a name originally given in France to every kind of indirect tax, as on wine, cloth, etc, but at a later period specially applied to the tax upon salt, which after being frequently imposed as a temporary means of raising money, became under Charles V a permanent impost. Under Henry II nine provinces and three counties purchased perpetual exemption from the tax, but it was only finally suppressed in France by the Constituent Assembly in 1790. About that time, out of 38,000,1100 livres raised by farmers-general from this tax, 7,000,000 at most came into the treasury. Research Gabelle
In architecture, a coussinet is a stone placed on the impost of a pier for receiving the first stone of an arch. The term is also applied to that part of the Ionic capital between the abacus and quarter round, which forms the volute. Research Coussinet
Flamboyant is a term designating a style of Gothicarchitecture in use in France about the same period with the Perpendicular style in England, that is, from the 14th to the 16th century, having prevailed during the whole of the 15th century. It was distinguished by the waving and somewhat flame-like tracery of the windows, panels, etc. (hence the name), and is usually regarded as a decadent variety of the decorated Gothic. The mouldings in this style are often ill combined, some of the members being disproportionately large or small. The pillars are often cylindrical, either plain or with a few of the more prominent mouldings of the arches continued down them, with out any capital or impost intervening. This is so common that it may be regarded as a characteristic of the style. Mouldings also sometimes meet and interpenetrate each other. The arches are usually two-centred, sometimes semi-circular, and in later examples, elliptical. The foliage enrichments are usually well carved, but the effect is often lost from the
minuteness and intricacy of the parts. Research Flamboyant
In architecture an impost is the top member of a pillar, pier, wall, etc., upon which the weight of an arch rests. The impost is called continuous, if the mouldings of the arch or architrave run down the jamb or pier without a break. Research Impost
In Gothic vaulting, a lierne rib is any rib which does not spring from the impost and is not a ridge rib, but passes from one boss or intersection of the principal ribs to another. Research Lierne Rib
In architecture a springer is the impost, or point at which an arch rests upon its support, and from which it seems to spring. Hence the term describes the bottom stone of an arch, which lies on the impost. The skew back is one form of springer. The term is also used to describe the rib of a groined vault, as being the solid abutment for each section of vaulting. Research Springer
In architecture, a stilted arch is an arch in which the springing line is some distance above the impost, the space between being occupied by a vertical member, moulded or ornamented, as a continuation of the archivolt, intrados, etc. Research Stilted Arch
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